Synopsis
Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all'italiana, 1961) is Pietro Germi's pitch-black crime comedy, free to watch online on iFILM. A bored Sicilian baron wants out of his marriage, but 1960s Italian law forbids divorce — so he starts plotting murder instead.
Ferdinando Cefalù is pushing forty, twelve years into a marriage he can't stand, and hopelessly fixated on his teenage cousin Angela. With divorce off the table, he spots a loophole: a man who kills an unfaithful wife to defend his honor gets a feather-light sentence. So he patiently tries to push his devoted Rosalia into another man's arms. Marcello Mastroianni plays it all with a stone face and a dry voiceover that makes the scheme funnier the darker it gets.
Its screenplay took home an Academy Award — rare territory for an Italian farce — while Germi skewers Sicilian honor codes, the church and the law itself. The satire is older than most of its viewers and still cuts clean. A sharp pick for anyone who likes their humor jet-black. Stream Divorce Italian Style (1961) online on iFILM.
Starring
Comments 0